Zeenat Aman recalls being intimidated by Rajesh Khanna

Zeenat Aman, a veteran actor in the Bollywood industry, acknowledged feeling intimidated by the late actor Rajesh Khanna during the early days of her career.

Despite this, she maintained her composure in front of the superstar and never displayed her apprehensions. It's quite surprising to imagine the always poised and stunning Zeenat Aman being intimidated by anyone. Nonetheless, in a recent interview, the seasoned actor confessed to feeling intimidated by the late actor Rajesh Khanna in the early stages of her career. To avoid appearing nervous in front of the superstar, Zeenat remembered that she would memorize all her lines.

According to a media outlet, while talking to the film companion she recalled, " I remember when I had just started in the film industry and Rajesh Khanna was the phenomenon. Oh my god, I mugged up all my lines so that I wouldn’t flub a single thing. I was totally intimidated by him but did I show him? Not at all. I went to him and I performed. So when I went back to my makeup room, I was like, ‘Wow. I just gave a shot with a superstar.’ I think that’s the right attitude to have." Zeenat stressed the importance of not letting oneself feel intimidated by working with superstars and instead focusing solely on delivering a great performance.

Zeenat Aman and Rajesh Khanna were featured together in several classic movies of the 70s, such as Ajanabee, Chhailla Babu, Jaanwar, and Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka.

In a previous interview, veteran actress Farida Jalal reminisced about her experience working with Rajesh Khanna in the movie Aradhana. Even though the movie primarily revolved around Rajesh and Sharmila Tagore, Farida had a significant role in it. Farida mentioned that Rajesh displayed arrogant behavior on set even before the movie became a hit, leading to some disagreements between them.

“He became ‘The Rajesh Khanna’ after Aradhana. But on the set, he was already quite arrogant,” she shared with Bollywood Bubble. Farida stated that she didn’t give him the star treatment on the set, which might have offended him a little bit. “I didn’t give him as much attention, so he got annoyed with me. I was in my own world. He was a little annoyed with that,” she said, while adding that he was actually quite impressive in the film.